Mr. SPEAKER: The House has already heard from his friend and successor
the story of Gen. LEE's life. I shall not, therefore, repeat it even in
briefest outline. Enough for me to say that he was one in a long lineage
of noted men, who by some innate force and virtue had stood forth in
three generations as leaders of their fellow-men; that he was the son of
the greatest of all who have borne the name, and that in early manhood
he exhibited the soldierly instincts and the soldierly capacity that
seemed to be historically associated with it.
With such a lineage and with such a history he came to this House, and I
believe I can offer no higher tribute to his memory to-day than to say
that in all his associations with us here he was the embodiment of
gentleness and modesty. Indeed, Mr. Speaker, as I now recall Gen. LEE,
and explore with aching heart the memory of a close and cordial
friendship with him, I can say with confidence that in the blending of
these rare traits I have never known his equal. They were a part of his
nature, not more illustrated in business and social intercourse with
fellow-members than in his relations with the page who did him service
and who learned to regard himself in some way as the special friend and
associate of Gen. LEE.
Many of us doubtless can recall the evident pride of the little fellow
who occasionally placed upon our desks the roses which his kindly patron
brought by the basketful in the spring mornings from his Virginia home
to brighten the sittings of the House. And this gentleness and modesty
were the more attractive because they were the adornment of a sincere
and manly character. How much came to him as the rich legacy of
ancestral blood and how much was wrought into his nature by the training
of his youth it is idle to speculate. In both respects he was lifted far
above the common lot of men. Of his mother it is said by those who knew
her well that she was one of the most accomplished and at the same time
most domestic, sensible, and practical of women. Of his father's
influence and teaching, to say nothing of his lofty example, we have the
striking proofs, if any were needed, in letters that have been
published. Let me cull but an occasional expression from these
unaffected outpourings of the heart of Robert E. Lee toward the son he
loved so well. "My precious Roon," as he was wont to call him.
When the boy was not yet ten years of age he closes a playful letter,
adapted to such tender years, with these earnest words:
Be true, kind, and generous, and pray earnestly to God to enable
you to keep His commandments and to walk in the same all the days
of your life.
A year later, writing from the ship _Massachusetts_, off Lobos, to his
two sons, a letter full of interest to boys, he urges them to diligence
in study:
I shall not feel my long separation from you if I find that my
absence has been of no injury to you, and that you have both grown
in goodness and knowledge as well as in stature; but how I shall
suffer on my return if the reverse has occurred. You enter into all
my thoughts, into all my prayers, and on you in part will depend
whether I shall be happy or miserable, as you know how much I love
you.
Ten years later, when the son had become a lieutenant in the Army, he
admonishes him:
I hope you will always be distinguished for your avoidance of the
universal bane whisky and every immorality. Nor need you fear to be
ruled out of the society that indulges in it, for you will acquire
their esteem and respect, as all venerate, if they do not practice,
virtue. I hope you will make many friends, as you will be thrown
with those who deserve this feeling. But indiscriminate intimacies
you will find annoying and entangling, and they can be avoided by
politeness and civility. When I think of your youth, impulsiveness,
and many temptations, your distance from me, and the ease (and even
innocence) with which you might commence an erroneous course, my
heart quails within me and my whole frame and being tremble at the
possible results. May Almighty God have you in His holy keeping. To
His merciful providence I commit you, and I will rely upon Him and
the efficacy of the prayers that will be daily and hourly offered
up by those who love you.
A year or two later, on New Year's Day, 1859, he writes:
I always thought there was stuff in you for a good soldier and I
trust you will prove it. I can not express the gratification I
felt, in meeting Col. May in New York, at the encomium he passed
upon your soldiership, your zeal, and your devotion to your duty.
But I was more pleased at the report of your conduct; that went
more to my heart and was of infinite comfort to me. Hold on to your
purity and virtue; they will proudly sustain you in all trials and
difficulties and cheer you in every calamity.
So, too, when the young lieutenant had married and settled down a
typical Virginian farmer upon the estate left him by his grandfather
Custis, the well-known "White House" on the Pamunkey, the home of Martha
Washington:
I am glad to hear that your mechanics are all paid off and that you
have managed your funds so well as to have enough for your
purposes. As you have commenced, I hope you will continue never to
exceed your means. It will save you much anxiety and mortification
and enable you to maintain your independence of character and
feeling. It is easier to make our wishes conform to our means than
to make our means conform to our wishes. In fact, we want but
little. Our happiness depends upon our independence, the success of
our operations, prosperity of our plans, health, contentment, and
the esteem of our friends, all of which, my dear son, I hope you
may enjoy to the full.
With such counsels, glowing with a father's love and enforced by the
constant example of a father's life, it is no wonder that the son grew
into the manliness, the gentleness and modesty, the charitableness of
judgment, the unconspicuous and patient devotion to duty, and the
personal lovableness of Gen. LEE.
Mr. Speaker, I might say much more from the promptings of a strong and
unfeigned affection and from a sense of the public merits of our late
colleague, but where there are so many to speak, it is not necessary for
one to attempt a catalogue of his private virtues and of his public
services.
Perhaps I may fitly add a word in closing as to Gen. LEE's military
career. From a captain of volunteer cavalry he rose on his own merits at
the age of twenty-six to the rank of major-general. I have not searched
the annals of war to recite his military history, for it is not the
soldier that I have been commemorating, but I may recall a testimony not
improper to be placed on record here to-day. I happened to be in company
with Gen. Joseph E. Johnston about the time that Gen. LEE was first
nominated for Congress. The old commander, who, as all know, was not
given to effusive speech, expressed to me his hearty gratification at
the event, and in doing so his high estimate of Gen. LEE as a man and of
his ability as a soldier. His praise was strong and unstinted, and no
one will question its sincerity. Mr. Speaker, what more need I add than
to say that in all the acts and relations of life, as son and soldier,
as husband and father, as private citizen and as Representative of the
people, as friend and as Christian, our departed colleague left a memory
we may well cherish and an example we may well follow.